Which Motherboard

[Altiear]

Hey guys, looking at creating a multi-purpose computer, mainly gaming thou. I've decided one 4 motherboards, but I need to pick just one :{P And I need help . The 4 are:
ASRock z87 OC Formula [/size]ASRock z87 Extreme 9ASRock z77 Oc FormulaASRock z77 Extreme 11[/color]

[Nrein]

Guess it all really depends on the amount of money you wanna spend.
The Z77 OC Formula would be your best bet if you wanna spend a decent amount of cash but get a lot of bang for the buck. I personally have a Z77 and can say it's one hell of a Motherboard. The thing about the Extreme 11 is that it's form factor is much smaller, which unless you're using an EATX case, would be sort of pointless :x

[Altiear]

Thanks for your help

[Nrein]

It's no problem at all, what can I say, my life's hobby is helping people with most things computer :p

[Timmy Fox]

Um, first of all.. What CPU are you intending to buy? Z87 and Z77 are different things and are not compatible with the same CPU's. Z87 is only compatible with Intel 4*** models and Z77 are only compatible with 3*** models.
Z87 is newer.

For the motherboards you mentioned, are you going to do any heavy overclocking or such? Because such high-end motherboards really are overkill if you're not gonna be pushing it to the extremes.
For all-purpose use and gaming, I'd say it's quite overkill. Something like an Asus z87-Pro or AsRock z87 Extreme6 should save you like $100 and have the same functionality.

My Asus Z68 cost me like $200 and have yet to disappoint me. So my advise it that, unless you're going to go really overkill with custom watercooling and overclocking to 5GHz and all that fancy stuff, spending that much on a motherboard imo is quite a waste of money.

And if you're going to those extremes.. why not just go for X79 with something like a 3930K?

[Altiear]

I  do wish to do some serious overclocking and thus why I was looking at the OC Formulas, plus I'm looking to have a machine that's worthy of overkill :{P As of CPU's I'm going to look them up after deciding on the motherboard, which I think I've cut down to the two OC formulas.

[Timmy Fox]

Still sounds a bit too much wasting your money for little benefit.

I went actually from one of those overkill-grade motherboards (Asus ROG Crosshair Formula V) to this "simple" P8Z68. I can without problem push my i7-2600K to 4.4GHz. If I'd want, 4.6 or 4.8 shouldn't be too much of a problem.

It's your money though. If I were you I'd go for the Z87 with an i7-4770K simply because it's newer and bit improved and more worthy of calling overkill.

I'd still personally rather go for a more value motherboard like the Asus Z87 Pro and spend the extra money on something like a beefier graphics card.

As a rule of thumb, if you're planning on buying a motherboard just because it's more expensive without really knowing what differentiates it from the cheaper ones I'm suggesting - you're probably just wasting a ton of money for no practical benefit.

[Altiear]

I'm loyal to ASRock, and I did look at the differences, not saying the z87 warren's the extra $100 or so, but I'm willing to pay.

[legolyle]

Why not put the extra cash saved on the motherboard towards something like a bigger SSD, better graphics card, or more ram?

Unless your willing to push yourself to a 3930k or something, what's the point in spending so much more on the motherboard? buy a better graphics card, or bigger SSD. Youll be happier in the end. Especially with haswell. Haswell ISN'T any better of an overclocker than previous gens. 

Personally, if it were me, and I wanted best bang for buck, I might actually stick with ivy bridge. Haswell just isn't that amazing, for price vs performance anyway. That said I got an Asus Z87 pro and 4770K. Couldn't be happier.

The best way to decide whether or not its worth it, is to simply ask yourself what features the better motherboards have you are going to use (that the lower end ones don't have). If you cant answer that, then you are probably wasting your money.

But, honestly, if your dead set on spending more on the motherboard, then it's pretty simple, nothing said here will likely stop you! So have at it!

[Altiear]

Yeah, I'm dead set on the Z87 Chip set I reckon :{P

[legolyle]

dead set on the most expensive board?

[Altiear]

I is dead set :{P

[Timmy Fox]

In all honesty I doubt you'll find any difference in usefulness between the expensive motherboards you mentioned and just a decently priced one.

[Altiear]

The difference that attracted me was the programs and features that the ASRock Z87 has

[legolyle]

ah those naughty naughty Gimmicks programs are always fun! (j/p )

know which processor/Graphics card you're gonna get?